Is ‘Abolition’ the answer to the PIL problem?

ON APRIL 8, 2026, while arguing before the nine-judge Bench in the Sabrimala reference, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta urged the Supreme Court to remove Public Interest Litigation (‘PIL’) as a concept altogether. Questioning the relevance of such petitions, he asked, “In this day and age, why should such PILs be entertained?” According to the Centre, many PILs now being filed were motivated and at the behest of undisclosed interests. 

Chief Justice of India Surya Kant responded saying that the courts were cautious. That same day, Justice B.V. Nagarathna observed that the petition challenging the temple entry practice should not have been fit to be entertained in the first place as no genuine devotee, according to her, would have challenged such a practice.  

“Pub­lic Interest Lit­ig­a­tion has now become Private Interest Lit­ig­a­tion, Pub­li­city Interest Lit­ig­a­tion, Paisa Interest Lit­ig­a­tion and Polit­ical Interest Lit­ig­a­tion,” Justice Nagarathna observed on May 5, adding that, “all are called PILs, but we enter­tain only real and genu­ine PILs”

There was a certain difference in the tenor between the statements made by the judges and the position advanced by the Solicitor General. While the judges acknowledged that only genuine and bona fide PILs  must be encouraged, the Solicitor General, on the other hand, called for their complete abrogation. This is not the first time the Centre has questioned the utility of PILs. Back in 2020 too, Mehta had told the Court that “professional PIL shops” must be locked down. 

Almost fifty years after PILs were introduced, this exchange opened up some urgent questions.Should the relaxed locus standi principles, that gave PILs their democratic character, be wound back to their original form? Is the misuse of PILs really as widespread as it is made out to be? If yes, what does misuse actually consist of? Political weaponisation, judicial overreach, frivolous petitions, or something else entirely? Finally, is the answer abolition, or is there a more calibrated case for reform? 

A brief history of PILs and the conundrums of locus standi

Public Interest Litigation emerged in the late 1970s in the aftermath of the Emergency, marking a significant departure from traditional adjudication. Many citizens in India lacked the access to courts with widespread poverty and illiteracy, which prompted the Supreme Court to relax the rules of locus standi and simplify procedural requirements for filing petitions.